Tayeb طيب – Stories On the Plate looks into food as a medium for narrating the journey of building care structure and community solidarity amongst Syrian and Afghanistan refugee women. This community-oriented project pays attention to women’s pivotal roles in refugee/migrant families, often overlooked and trivialised, even though their effort in building friendship and sisterhood is fundamental for making a new home, resilient survival and community building. 

The project sailed off with the Persian New Year celebration ‘Nowruz’. In the first workshop, the participants decorated Sholeh Zard, a rice pudding shared with neighbours during this festive season and Ramadan, with the Haft-Mewa, seven dried nuts and fruits, honouring the Afghan tradition, with the addition of rosebuds to bring more joy. Saffron yellow brightness and the irresistible fragrance of cardamom and rosewater teleport your body to Zoroastrian times. We also learned about the Egyptian Spring festival Sham El-Nessim, meaning ‘smelling the breeze’ and hence a picnic is an essential part. How gorgeous! The following workshops included water colouring of the most celebratory family dish on the postcard painted with edible fragrances, an embroidery session for narrating food-related heritage on the four corners of the napkin, a tea mixing session for knowledge sharing of folk healing and personalised remedies, and finally drawing session for imaginary dinner table, inspired by the generosity of Ramadan culture.

The stories gathered from the workshops were translated into a poetry book with the illustration. The poetry book was shared/served in the installation in a form of a long dining table, filled with soil bed, curious objects and plants, during the Arts in the Park Festival 2022.

* Poetry book collaboration with Nia Fekri

* Commissioned by MK Islamic Arts and Culture for the Arts in the Park 2022.